B57 Plane Crash

On Tuesday 16th October 1962 two U.S. Air Force crew, Lieutenant Harold  Sprague 27 (pilot) and Lieutenant Bobby Edward Gelbrecht 26 (navigator), both of the 57th Weather Squadron USAF, were killed in a tragic crash. The B57 crash was about 2.5 miles (4 km) offshore in Bass Strait, between Lorne and Airey’s Inlet. The plane plunged into the sea close to a fisherman, Bryan Hunt, who was returning to Lorne Pier after pulling and baiting his craypots near Airey’s Inlet.  It was flying at an altitude of about 500 feet, parallel to his cray boat. Bryan sailed around the oil slick for a while, recovering some items from the crash site.

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